


The Last Time

by Chaotic_Adventure



Series: Kafei and Link [1]
Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
Genre: Fluff and Angst, Homophobia, How Do I Tag, Kinda, M/M, Panic, Revelations, Trauma, only slightly though, so like a character dies but it isn't permanent?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-28
Updated: 2019-03-28
Packaged: 2019-12-25 22:34:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,708
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18270554
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chaotic_Adventure/pseuds/Chaotic_Adventure
Summary: The first time I saw him, he was a Deku scrub. He spent almost six hours just spinning about in the courtyard just before the moon fell, laughing and avoiding the dog that kept chasing after him.Sometime in between the first and the last, I had a revelation.





	The Last Time

**Author's Note:**

> Hope y'all like it! Enjoy!

Every time I saw him, he was different.

The first time, he was a Deku scrub. He spent almost six hours just spinning about in the courtyard before the moon fell, laughing and avoiding the dog that kept chasing after him. His eyes glowed brightly, and his hat blew in the wind as he ran.

The second time, he was human. He seemed busy, but confused, running from place to place as though he didn’t quite understand what he was doing. He flitted about, talking to everyone he could. I avoided him and checked the mailbox. Nothing.

The third time, he was only there for a second, and then he was gone. Sometime during the next day, the swamp was cleared of poison. He then returned, put his money in the bank, and stared up at the moon for a solid thirty minutes before pulling out his ocarina once again.

The fourth time, he was a Goron. He still had his hat. He visited Anju and I, but disposed of her letter. It… it didn’t really matter. He’d come back to us one of these days. Instead of helping us then, he grew stronger, and the mountains were gifted spring. His sword attained a golden sheen. He saved Romani Ranch from the aliens. He once again met with Anju and I, but he didn’t meet me at Sakon’s hideout. I am unsure why.

The fifth time, he was a Zora. His hair was pretty. He did not stay long. Eventually, he returned, exhausted, and almost forgot to put his money in the bank before beginning again.

The sixth time, he was human again. He was… sad, almost melancholy. He disappeared to the canyons, and finally met me at Sakon’s hideout. We recovered my mask. I waited with Anju for an end that I knew would never come.

The seventh time. The last time. He sat in the square, a deku once again, no longer spinning. His body was scratched, burned, scarred over and healed. He was patched together with leaves and water and stone. His shield was reflective, and he now had a second sword composed of rainbows and black roses.

He turned back human. The shadows under his eyes were deep. I knew he never slept. 

I walked up to him and said, “hello.” He didn’t respond. That was normal. He probably thought I had forgotten him.

“Link?”

He stared. “How… how do you remember?”

“I’ve always remembered. How many times has it been? Seven?”

Link laughed, long and loud. “It’s almost over, Kafei. I’m going up there tonight. I’ve done it, and it’s about to be over.”

I looked at him. He still seemed sad under his laughter.

“Link, why were you ever here?”

Link stiffened.

“I know you’re not from Termina. Where did you come from? Why are you here?”

“How long do we have?”

I checked. “A day and change.”

“Wear this mask, and I’ll tell you. This way, you won’t get tired.”

He handed me the all-night mask. I put it on, carefully laying my Keaton mask on my lap, and Link told me of a far-away land, and a princess, and time travel.

“It’s been seven times here,” Link said. “Seven times, and I’ve slowed down the days for each. I’ve re-lived the seven years I missed. But the reason…”

He stayed silent for a time.

“I left Hyrule in order to search for a friend. Her name was Navi. She was my fairy companion during my time in Hyrule, and she disappeared after I won. I thought… I thought I could find her. Instead, I got roped into  _ this.” _

He laughed grimly.

“Did you know I met skull kid? Before all of this, I mean. I taught him a song in the middle of the Lost Woods of Hyrule.”

I suddenly remembered something I had learned from Anju. “It is said that skull children are the remains of children who were lost.”

Link nodded. “It’s true. I… I sold him a skull mask that belonged to the happy mask salesman. He still knows the song I taught him, even now, although I can no longer play it myself.”

We stayed there for awhile. I gave him back his mask.

Link glanced at the clock. “One hour. Shall I skip it?”

“No,” I said. “Sit with me.”

And that’s when I told him all that had befallen Anju and I. She had left me, since I couldn’t get my mask this time around. Link offered to go back and do it again, but I refused him.

“You wouldn’t have time to defeat the skull kid afterwards. And besides, it’s for the better. Let’s just… sit.”

We looked at the moon.

“It’s almost over,” Link murmured. “It’s almost over. It’s almost over.”

“You can do it.”

Link turned to me. “What?”

“I said, you can do it. You’re strong enough. You can do it.”

Link sighed and nodded. “I should save. And then I’ll go up there.”

I smiled. “I’ll wait here. See you soon, alright?”

“Alright.”

We embraced, and then Link put on his bunny hood and raced to touch the owl statue before the clock struck six.

He waved, and I waved back.

And then he was gone.

Time froze. To everyone else, the next hour would go by in a second, but for both myself and Link, time was stilled.

But just as I thought it would end, the world went black, and hazy red letters appeared in front of me that I couldn’t read. They weren’t in Terminan.

_ What happened? _

Suddenly, everything appeared again, just as it was when it had stopped. Except Link was running back to me, and he collapsed on the ground, shaking and gasping for air.

“Link?”

Link looked up at me. “I… he…” And that’s when I noticed he was crying.

“Link!” I fell on my knees next to him and held him close to me. “What happened?”

“He… he killed me, Kafei! I actually–I actually died, and I–” he broke off, sobbing, and we sat there for a long time, Link crying and me holding him as tightly as I could.

“Link, it’s okay. You’re okay now.”

He finally pulled back and looked to the clock tower. “I… I have to try again, don’t I?”

“Not now, if you don’t want to. You could reset again.”

“No. I can’t bear another three days here.” He stood shakily. “I’m going to try again. Wait for me?”

“Always.”

And he disappeared into the moon again.

It somewhat reassured me that if Link died, he would come back.

However, it broke my heart to see how  _ scared  _ he was.

Time froze. I stood in the square, my heart pounding. I couldn’t skip the hours. I couldn’t do something else. I couldn’t reset.

After all,  _ I  _ didn’t have an ocarina.

So instead, I spun. I dodged the dog still chasing after people. I spun around the two construction workers left, frozen in place; I laughed as I twisted between towers. I stepped up to the ceremonial platform and twirled for nobody, laughing, desperately hoping Link would be safe this time. Something within me thought that I could help him by doing what I could. By remembering.

I didn’t know how many times would break him.

I didn’t know how many times would break me, either.

All I knew was that Anju leaving wasn’t enough to break me. And that was because I had fallen in love with someone else.

The world didn’t go black this time. Four giants rose, and they held the moon back until it turned to smoke and ashes.

It was over.

I laughed, and I ran up to one of the workers, who was staring at the sky in shock. “Look! He did it!”

“Who did it?”

“Link! He did it! He stopped the moon!” I jumped up and down and gasped as I suddenly grew taller again.

Link slowly floated to the ground, a new mask held in trembling hands.

“Link!”

Link looked up, recognizing me. “Kafei!”

We hugged, again, except this time I was tall, so it was a little more awkward.

Link smiled. “You grew again! Once I go back to Hyrule, I’ll probably grow back to seventeen, too, considering how long I’ve been here.”

“Wait. You missed seven years, right?”

Link nodded.

“So when you got here, you were… ten?”

“Well, I’m not exactly sure. I never knew when my birthday was. So I was either nine or ten. And I’m either sixteen or seventeen now!”

I laughed and kneeled next to him. “That’s awesome!”

“Yeah!” Link was laughing, too, harder than I was. “And it’s over! But…” he stopped. “I… I have to go back to Hyrule.”

“Oh, right.” I sobered and looked away. “That’s true.”

“But, um… would you come with me?”

I looked up to find Link nervously scratching the back of his head.

“I mean, you don’t have to! I know Anju’s here, and you could probably get your mask back now that you’re older, and–”

“No! I mean, yes! I’ll go with you!”

“Really?”

“Yeah!”

Link grabbed my hand and made a show of leading me to his horse. “Okay. We don’t have to leave now, but this is Epona, my horse. Epona, this is Kafei. He’s coming with us.”

Epona snorted. Link laughed.

I thought it was the prettiest sound in the world.

“Do you want to say goodbye to anyone? I think I will,” Link added to the end. “I wanna see the deku princess! Oh, and Lulu! And her babies!”

I smiled and nodded. “I’ll say goodbye to my father, maybe, and some other townspeople. Cremia?”

“Oh!” Link jumped up and down. “I gotta see Romani, too! I’ll be back! Bye!”

He raced off, his bunny hood enabling him to run much faster than normal. I waved and turned around to look for my father.

Directly behind me stood Anju.

“Oh. Hello.”

“Hi.”

It was incredibly awkward. Anju stepped back, as though she couldn’t stand to be close to me. I looked to the ground for answers. Unsurprisingly, it didn’t give me any.

“Um… Anju? Why are you here?”

“Are you going with him?”

At that, my eyes snapped up to meet hers. She sounded so…  _ sad.  _ Almost as though she didn’t want to see me go.

“Yes.”

Anju deflated. “Oh. I suppose… after I rejected you because you didn’t have your mask…”

I frowned and tried to look apologetic. I wasn’t certain I was doing a good job. “There is no one I care about here except for you. I’m going with him.”

“What about Cremia? If you were going to go to anyone, I expected it to be her…”

I sighed. “But I don’t love Cremia.”

I waited for her to understand. When she finally did, her eyes widened, and she slapped me across the face. “You’ve fallen in love with a  _ child?” _

“Anju! He’s seventeen!”

Anju tilted her head to the side. “What?”

“He’s been turning back time, and slowing it down. He’s lived seven years here, trying to stop the moon. And he said that once he returns to his homeland, he’ll suddenly grow, like I did, because he was cursed upon entering Termina to remain in his child form.”

Anju inhaled through her teeth, making a slight whistling sound. “But didn’t you fall in love with him from his looks?

“No!” I bit my lower lip. “I didn’t… I didn’t fall in love with him from  _ looking  _ at him! For Tetra’s sake, he’s been shapeshifting the entire time, from Deku to Zora to Goron! I fell in love with him from watching what he’s been doing! Anju, he’s… he saved every region. He got rid of the poison in the swamp, he brought spring to the mountains, he released the canyons from drought. And he saved  _ us.  _ I was with him when he decided to go into the moon, and I was there when he  _ died  _ and–and when he reset–” I began to cry. “He  _ died,  _ Anju! He died and reset to an hour before, and he was so scared! He was always so scared, Anju. But he did it all anyway.”

Anju looked down. “I… I understand. I was not so kind in my fear, and… I’m afraid I’m still fighting it. Everything within me is screaming at me that this love you have for him is  _ wrong. _ But what you say about him… that’s everything I once thought about you. So I am trying to fight it.”

I touched her hand, and she placed her other one on top of mine. “Thank you,” I murmured. “Thank you for trying. I know that’s all I can really ask for. And thank you for understanding why I must leave.”

“Do… do you want to say goodbye to your father?”

“Yes,” I said, “I would.”

Anju lead me to my father, the mayor, and I told him I was leaving. He was sad, of course, and he didn’t really understand why I was leaving Anju, but he told me to be safe and said he loved me. I didn’t tell him about Link. I didn’t want to give him a chance to hate me.

I met back up with Link after about an hour. He told me to ride Epona, and he ran beside us with the bunny hood, since Epona couldn’t hold both of us. The ride back only took a half-hour, and the instant we stepped through the log separating Termina and Hyrule, Link grew back to an adult, just as I had.

Link took off the bunny hood and laughed, pulling his now-long hair into a ponytail. “I… I have to tell you something, Kafei.”

“Alright.” I dismounted Epona and walked up to him. “What is it?”

“I, uh, I only realized this about… two resets ago? But, I… I, um…”

“What?”

Link blushed furiously and looked down. “Um, I really like you? I mean. Um.” He rubbed the back of his head. “Sorry.”

“Link!”

Link looked up. “I, uh, I’ll take you back, if you want to go back…”

“No!” I grabbed his arm. “Link, no, I–I like you, too!”

Link laughed giddily. “Really?”

“Yes! That’s why I was willing to leave Anju! That’s why I didn’t want to try again! I’ve been watching you do all this crap for seven years–”

“It wasn’t seven years for you,” Link joked.

“No, but it was for you.”

Link simply stared at me for a minute. “I did all that… everything I did after I met you was for you. I needed to save your world. I was going to just leave. I had my ocarina, and I had a few masks, and I was pretty done. But then…  _ you.  _ I had to save Termina for you.”

I felt like I had to give a speech, too, after Link gave his. “I’ve been watching, and I remember everything. You were so confused at the beginning. You tried to talk to me, and I refused… I was too stuck on Anju. But as you kept going, I just… I couldn’t help myself. You were obviously so,  _ so  _ sick of all our crap. But you did it anyway.”

Link smiled. “I was. I was  _ really  _ sick of Majora’s crap. Especially since I was the one to introduce him to the Happy Mask Salesman in the first place.”

“You know what, though?” I grinned, remembering something.

“What?”

“My strongest memory, besides the last time, was the very first. When you couldn’t manipulate time. You spun as a deku in the square for six hours.”

“Oh! I remember that!” Link laughed. “I was waiting for the clock tower to open up, so I could get my ocarina back.”

“Yeah. You were just spinning and laughing as though the world wasn’t about to end, after all.”

“And it didn’t.”

“It didn’t.”

We held hands as we walked about Hyrule, Epona following behind. When we finally reached Link’s home in the Kokiri forest, he gave me his Deku mask and taught me to spin.

I don’t think I could ever be happier than I was then, dancing and laughing with Link as the sun turned the sky gold.

**Author's Note:**

> Again, hope y'all liked! Sequel has been written!


End file.
